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The Art of Noise

The Thriller in Manila it was not. And though some “correspondents” would like to make it out to be it was far from being Anatoly Karpov versus Garry Kasparov. I’m talking about the last 5 km of yesterday’s stage of the Tour de France. In particular the “attack” made by Chris Froome which put his teammate Bradley Wiggins into trouble off the back of the leading group of contenders. A lot has been made of this move, the subsequent pressing of earpiece by Froome and the interview he gave immediately after the stage. Gripping and intriguing it certainly was, but there seems to be an appetite to turn every twist and turn into a Machiavellian subplot.

Of course differences within teams is nothing new. The 2009 Tour saw the Contador and Armstrong destroy the Astana team. 1997 witnessed Jan Ullrich dethrone his teammate Bjarne Riis whilst also chasing the green jersey for Eric Zabel which, as an article in Procycling magazine illustrates, created 3 teams of 3 under one banner. And of course there is the ultimate internecine battle between Lemond and Hinault which Richard Moore covers beautifully in Slaying the Badger. Whilst this has the makings of such a battle, from the events of this Tour so far it still lacks much of the background which those others had.

Some argue this was Froome putting his marker down for leadership of the team. Despite stating that he riding for Wiggins following his own stage 7 win and reiterating this yesterday correspondents – both professional and amateur – have taken to reading into his words and body language to suggest that there is frustration at having to play second fiddle. A second place in last year’s Vuelta is somehow the justification for the conspiracy theories. But one Vuelta does not a Tour winner make. Take into account Wiggin’s return to racing from a broken collarbone in that race and his superb form this season combined with Froome’s own fragile health since Spain and the equation being posed by some starts to look slightly lopsided. The most astute observation I have seen so far comes from my friend and Real Peloton’s Steve Trice in a Twitter conversation with Matt Rendell:

We don’t know how much Froome benefits from Wiggo bearing leader’s responsibility & attention. Stepping up to no. 1 is a big step…Being team leader is like in a sprint – you don’t know how strong your legs are until you leave the slipstream and take the wind.

I’ve not seen that in the reports I’ve read so far.

Over exuberance by the younger teammate? A coup d’etat at La Toussuire? A simple error of judgement in the heat of the race? Only Froome will know for sure. But I have a small theory of my own and it is all based on noise.

Anybody who has ever been to or ridden in a race will know how it is an assault on all the senses. Stand by the side of the road when the Tour of Britain whizzes past and the sights, the sounds, the smells all collide. So imagine being in the midst of that, on the other end of a thousand shouting spectators, pursued by mankini wearing self-publicists, dodging motorbikes and cars whilst trying to do your job. Workplace communications are never perfect at the best of times but this office is open plan to the extreme and instructions can be misheard and missed. When the boss can’t be heard and/or doesn’t respond you make what you think is the best decision and deal with the consequences later. This is the art of living with the noise. Maybe this is what happened, but as I said, none of us will ever really know.

The second part of my theory revolves around the reliance on race radios. As the riders are more accustomed to the input from the radio, so perhaps they adapt their behaviour and in so doing become more complacent? It is another noise and one which takes over (some of) the riders. Froome’s attack yesterday might well have been to help not hinder Wiggins, a response to earlier attacks from Wiggins’ rivals. And maybe he was waiting to be told what to do? Based on the pictures we saw of him alternating between earpiece and mic did the remote control not work? Not that this is the only time radios might actually be to blame. Whilst the first week crashes were blamed on various causes from climbers to road furniture and finally over-enthusiastic amateur photographers, I wonder if the ability of the professional peloton to work together and warn each other of dangers has been lost. Ride with your local club and there are shouts within the bunch to warn of imminent dangers. My theory is that riders have become to reliant on someone telling them what to do, when and how that the basics of racing are possibly dying. I’d be interested in the thoughts of others about this.

Whilst we are on the topic of noise, the external cacophony of armchair experts has been added to by so-called “Sky WAGs” Twitter-spat. Of course I am excited that there is a British rider with a real chance of winning the Tour de France, I’d be lying if I said otherwise. But these posts are trying to be as objective as is possible in commenting on these events. Earlier in the week I indicated the discomfort I have with some of the noise on Twitter and unfortunately the exchanges between Cath Wiggins and Michelle Cound take this to a new level. It is quite understandable for both to have intense feelings when watching the action but many is the time MrsAB has returned home from work, told me what has happened and I have wanted to vent my spleen to someone. I don’t, however. Please Cath and Michelle, you are intelligent people, let’s keep this “in house” if we must, you’re not Coleen and Victoria and I’m sure you’ll never want to be.

The story is so familiar: a potential British success undermined by both British fans and from those within. Could we not avoid the mistakes that other sports have made in this respect?